Why I'm Running
Leave it better than you found it
I'm an MHS parent and a data professional running to promote achievement, transparency and accountability in the Montclair Public Schools.
My son is a current student in the Montclair school system, and my daughter graduated a year ago. I am deeply invested in our district's success. I run an analytics business called Symmetric, and I curate a network of NYC CFOs called the CFO Roundtable. Before that I was an entrepreneur in residence at Ernst & Young.
When the fiscal crisis broke, I turned these skills towards school budgets, created a database of every school budget in New Jersey and published my findings on spending and state and federal funding in the Local. It is now a simple online tool that any parent in any New Jersey school district can use to understand the health of their district: njschoolinsights.com.
I'm running because the fiscal crisis has made our community more vulnerable than ever, and we need to be more transparent than ever.
We moved to Montclair in 2009. With our second child on the way, we needed more room and something more predictable than New York City's educational gauntlet. Montclair was the obvious choice. My wife Jen Dorr grew up here. Her parents were still here, and the thought of just being able to send your children to a school we could rely on was incredibly appealing.
Our kids went to the same schools as Jen and her family -- Nishuane, Hillside, Glenfield, and the high school. Our son even had Mr. Gill -- just like Jen's siblings. Since then, our oldest has graduated and moved on to college in Chicago, and our youngest is now a senior, rowing crew, and focused on what life after graduation will look like.
The Montclair Public School District has been great for us. The athletic and academic programs in Montclair helped them grow into who they are today. But it hasn't always been great for everyone, and the fiscal crisis has made it even more difficult for Montclair. Invoices stuffed in drawers. Creditors at the gate. Everyone lost teachers. Some lost a school. I want to make sure Montclair can be there for everyone.
I'm running because Montclair has been good to my family, and achievement should be available to everyone. I'm running because the fiscal crisis has made our community more vulnerable than ever, so we need to be more transparent than ever. I'm running because I want to bring my skills and experience to leave the school district better than we found it.
Candidate for Montclair School Board